High-strength α+β titanium alloy hot-rolled sheet excellent in cold coil handling property and process for producing the same

1. An α+β titanium alloy hot-rolled sheet, comprising, in mass %, Fe: 0.8 to 1.5%, Al: 4.8 to 5.5%, and N: 0.030% or less, and, containing O and N to satisfy the condition that Q defined by the following formula (1) is 0.14 to 0.38, with the balance being Ti and unavoidable impurities, wherein,

(a) the normal direction of a hot-rolled sheet is taken as ND, the hot rolling direction is taken as RD, the hot-rolling width direction is taken as TD, the normal direction of the α-phase (0001) plane is taken as c-axis orientation, the angle formed between the c-axis orientation and the ND is taken as θ, and the angle formed between a plane including the c-axis orientation and the ND, and a plane including the ND and the TD is taken as φ;

(b1) among (0002) relative reflection intensities of X-ray by grains where θ is from 0 to 30° and φ falls in the entire circumference from −180 to 180° , the highest intensity is taken as XND;

(b2) among (0002) relative reflection intensities of X-ray caused by grains where θ is from 80 to less than 100° and φ falls in ±10° , the highest intensity is taken as XTD; and

(c) XTD/XND is 4.0 or more:

Q = [O]+2.77·[N]  (1)

wherein [O]: the mass % content of O, and [N]: the mass % content of N.

2. The α+β titanium alloy hot-rolled sheet according to claim 1 ,

wherein (d) the Vickers hardness of a cross-section perpendicular to the RD direction of the hot-rolled sheet is H 1 , and the Vickers hardness of a cross-section perpendicular to the TD direction H 2 , the hardness anisotropy index represented by (H 2 -H 1 ).H 2 is 15,000 or more, and

(e) in a Charpy test piece sampled from the hot-rolled sheet, where the RD is the test piece longitudinal direction and a notch with a depth of 2 mm is formed in the TD, the length of a perpendicular line drawn down vertically from the notch bottom to the opposing surface is “a” and the length of a crack actually propagated after the test is “b”, the fracture inclination index represented by “b/a” is 1.20 or more.

3. A process for producing the α+β titanium alloy hot-rolled sheet according to claim 1 , wherein at the time of hot-rolling an α+β titanium alloy, the titanium alloy is heated to a temperature ranging from β transformation temperature to β transformation temperature +150° C., and hot-rolled uni-directionally by setting the hot rolling finishing temperature to be in a range of from β transformation temperature −250° C. to β transformation temperature −50° C., and the sheet thickness reduction ratio, in %, defined by the following formula to be 90% or more;

Sheet thickness reduction ratio ={(sheet thickness before hot rolling−sheet thickness after hot rolling)/(sheet thickness before hot rolling)}·100.

4. A process for producing the α+β titanium alloy hot-rolled sheet according to claim 2 , wherein at the time of hot-rolling an α+β titanium alloy, the titanium alloy is heated to a temperature ranging from β transformation temperature to β transformation temperature +150° C., and hot-rolled uni-directionally by setting the hot rolling finishing temperature to be in a range of from β transformation temperature −250° C. to β transformation temperature −50° C., and the sheet thickness reduction ratio, in %, defined by the following formula to be 90% or more;

Sheet thickness reduction ratio ={(sheet thickness before hot rolling−sheet thickness after hot rolling)/(sheet thickness before hot rolling)}·100.